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L^L 

\ 1 

^ \ -Vol. II 


THE TEAGHER’S HELPER, 

Subscription $2.00 per year. 

JANUARY, 1896. No. 6 



£ yl.pLANAQAN - pJBLISrtER . 

—.— -- 1 — 


THE TEAGHER’S HELPER is published monthly by 
A. FEANAGAIN, Ghicago. 


Entered at Chicago Post Office as 2nd class matter. 










































Three Iiittle hovers 
of Mature. 

ELLA REEVE WARE 



Records the doings of three happy children, 
who found pleasure for a whole year in search¬ 
ing for knowledge in ‘‘Mother Nature’s Garden 
of Secrets.” 

Kindness to animal life is emphasized. 

Hints are given of the good 
that may be done unto othe 
children thoughtful and wil 
The general trend of 
little book is to elevate 
make more noble the child n 
The book is embellish 
many illustrations, the 
of Ralph Meriman, and 
cover designs of both paper ana 
cloth editions are by the same 
artist. 

In a group picture are given 
the portraits of the “three 
little lovers of nature. ” 


As a supplementary reader, this book may be used in Fourth Grade- 


103 Pages. PRICE, in Cloth Binding, 35c.; in Paper, ^cc. 


A. FLANAGAN, 

- Ga Wat>asti Ave., Cliioago, 
























VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


A NATURE FAIRY STORY 



MRS. A. F. BELL 

Y». 


rS /J 



CHICAGO : 


A. FLANAGAN, Publisher 





QL4i 7 

./B^3 


Copj'right, 1896, 
by 

A. FLANAGAN. 




CONTENTS. 


The Brown Jacket Fairies.7 

The Court of the Brown Jacket Fairies . . 18 

The Yellow Plush Fairies.24 

The Underground Fairies . . . . 32 

Pin’an Needle Fairies . . . .42 

The Winged Flowers.49 

The Silk Fairies.57 

The Wicked House Fairy.64 

The Spinner Fairy.73 

The Great Owl with the White Cross . . 79 

The Acrobat. . 90 

Mr. Green Lace Wing.96 

The Digger Fairies.102 








THE BROWN JACKET FAIRIES. 

Victor had been thinking fully five minutes 
when he exclaimed: “ 1 wish 1 were a fairy, so 
that I could go everywhere.” He sat down be¬ 
tween the spreading roots of an oak that grew 
upon the lawn, beside the lake, and looked at a 
rose blooming between him and the water. The 
rose was trembling, although there was no wind, 
and while Victor looked something came out 
of the flower and flew toward him. He was 
frightened and started to run to the meadow, 
but turned back at the sight of another object 
flying from that direction. 

Across the water, on flashing wings, came 
two other creatures, and, at the same moment, 
a fifth one hastened toward him from the open 
door of his father’s house. Quite bewildered, 
Victor sank down again and covered his eyes. 
Then all these creatures and others that he had 
not noticed, flew around him and gently 
hummed: “ We are fairies.” 

Victor raised his head and said, “ Queer 
looking fairies, I should say!” 


8 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


The little fellows ceased singing and started 
to fly away. 

“ Oh, come back, come back, please!” Vic¬ 
tor called, “ I only meant that 1 had never seen 
any fairies like you!” 

“Ah, one of them said as they returned, 
“ Why do you wish to be a fairy?” 

“That I might go everywhere, even to the 
moon! ” 

“ Ha, ha,” laughed the fairies, and they flew 
round and round, as though mad, then started 
away again. 

But Victor called: “Don’t go, I really don’t 
care about the moon.” 

“ It is well you don’t, for we couldn’t help you 
get there. We can show you stranger things 
here than you’d find on the moon, however.” 

“ Let me see them! ” Victor returned, doubt- 
ingly. 

“Look, then!” called a voice, so quick and 
sharp that Victor jumped. For there, right over 
his head clinging to a very fine cord, hung a fairy 
about as large as a gooseberry. 

When he saw Victor watching, he turned 
around and ran up the cord, hand over hand, as 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


9 


a monkey would, only very much faster, until he 
was lost among the branches. 

“ 1 can show you something stranger than 
that,” said another fairy, who, on account of his 
brown velvet jacket, with gold lacings, was 
called Brown Jacket. 

“And I, and I, and 1 ,” called the others. 

“I spoke first,” said Brown Jacket. At this 
the rest of the fairies disappeared. Victor looked 
disappointed. 

“You shall meet them again, if you like,” 
Brown Jacket explained. “And now are you 
ready to go with me? But wait a moment.” 

With that he disappeared into a flower, the 
interior of which was lined with gold dust. He 
rolled about in it, until quite covered with the 
precious stuff. He stayed so long that Victor 
thought he was forgotten and shook the flower 
until Brown Jacket came out with an angry buzz, 
to ask what he meant. 

“Why did you stay so long,” asked Vic¬ 
tor?” 

“ So that 1 could get all the gold dust and 
honey out of the flower.” While he talked, 
Brown Jacket gathered the gold dust from his 


10 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


clothes and stuffed it into tiny bags, made for 
that purpose and attached to his legs. 

At last he said: “ I am ready to go now, are 
you?” 

“Where?” 

“To my home. Don’t you wish to go too?” 

“Oh, yes, I am ready 1” 

“ I forgot, you can’t go that wayl ” 

“Why?” 

“In the first place, you are too large to travel 
with me; then the guards in our house will not al¬ 
low you to enter unless you look exactly like me.” 

“ How can / look like you!” 

“I will show you. Eat some of this food.” 

And when he had eaten what Brown Jacket 
gave him, he suddenly became so small that an 
inch would be tall beside him. Of course he 
was brown; brown as a chestnut, and had two 
great knobs of eyes, and a pair of horns upon 
his head. As for legs, he had six of them, and 
four of the dantiest little wings that you can 
imagine. He was armed, too, with a tiny sharp 
sword, no longer than the prickle of a thistle. 

“You may as well carry home some honey 
with you,” Brown Jacket said. 


VICTOR IN BUZZ!AND. 


11 


“ Honey, you know, is delicious, and when 
you dive into the deep wells of a honey suckle 
for it, or cling to a pink faced anemone, in 
a spring breeze, then it is far sweeter.” At least so 
Victor thought, as with his long tongue he drew 



tasting of the 
their deepest 

at the door 
that you are 
Brown Jack- 


the honey, still 
flowers, from 
recesses. 

“The guards 
will never suspect 
not one of us,” 
et said as they flew 
homeward. 

“ Why should they not 
know just who 1 am, and 
why do you have guards?” 

“ Because,” answered 
Brown Jacket, “If you are not like us, they will 
not allow you to enter, for they will think you 
are one of the robbers who sometimes get in 
and steal our treasure. 1 will show you what 
becomes of them.” 

When they reached Brown Jacket’s home, 
Victor was surprised to find that it was nothing 
but a dark box. 



12 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“You have quite a family,” he said as he 
looked around. 

“Yes, there are twenty thousand of us, be¬ 
sides the queen and her body guard of two thou¬ 
sand picked men.” 

“ Dear me! ” Victor exclaimed, as he tumbled 
against a big round object. “You must find it 
very awkward to have such large stones in your 
home.” 

“ That is not a stone, although it is a monu¬ 
ment to one of the robbers that 1 was telling 
you about. In fact it’s the robber himself, 
turned into his own tombstone.” 

“He was a snail once, and went creeping 
about carrying his house on his back. A fellow 
may hide in his own house, but if he can’t hide 
the house, what good does it do him?” 

Victor shook his head as much as to say, “No 
good.” 

“ Well, he managed to creep in here when 
the guards were sleepy. It was not long before 
some one saw him creeping toward our golden 
treasure, and in a twinkling drew his sword and 
stabbed him.” That made Mr. Snail draw back 
into his shell pretty quickly. “ There are no 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


13 


windows in his house, and only one door, which 
Mr. Snail always leaves closed, so that no one 
else can enter.” 

“Well, as we could not get to him, a number 
of us gathered resin from the near buds 
of bushes. This we changed into wax on the 
journey home, and with it we sealed up Mr. 
Snail’s house, andglued him to the floor, where he 
makes a charming ornament, don’t you think so? ” 

“ And pray, what is this fellow doing?” Vic¬ 
tor asked. 

“ Only carrying out the body of another rob¬ 
ber. He is too small for bric-a-brac, but it would 
not do to leave the body in our home to taint the 
air. It is to keep that pure, that we carry out 
the small bodies, and bury the big ones in wax.” 

While they were talking, Victor and his 
companion climed to the top story of the house. 

“ We have just moved into this house, and 
these workers are filling up the crevices to make 
the place air tight.” 

At that moment Victor saw what he thought 
was a swing hanging from the roof, and without 
asking permission, jumped into it, and began to 
swing lightly to and fro. There was a loud 


14 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND 


murmur, which Victor thought rather curious, 
but before he could find out what it meant, the 
swing broke, and he dropped to the floor. 

He was much alarmed, and grew more so, 
when his guide said, “Another such rash move 
will cost you your life; now, unless you do as I 
tell you—well, I won’t say what will happen!” 

Victor said nothing, but decided to investi¬ 
gate the swing himself. He was surprised to 
find that it was not made of grass, but of the 
fairies themselves, each little fellow clinging to 
the feet of the one before him. 

“ 0 !” cried Victor to them—for the swing 
was now repaired—“let me do that tool” 

“ No, you have honey about you. Don’t 
you see that we are getting the wax ready to 
build the cells where we keep the golden treas¬ 
ure ?” 

“ It looks very queer, it looks very queer to 
me,” drawled out another fairy, “ when anybody 
in this house stands around with nothing to do.” 

With these words he left his place in the 
swing and flew towards Victor, who saw that he 
was weighed down with broad bands of wax. 

* He was frightened again, but remembering 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


15 


just in time what he had brought from the 
flowers, he asked briskly, “ where shall I put 
my load?” 

“ Follow me,” the fairy returned, going to the 
top of the house, where he removed the wax and 
fastened it to the ceiling. 

The rest of the curious swing followed his 
example, and then away they all flew into the 
open air. 

Then other fairies, with their sharp teeth 
and their heads, formed the wax into little six 
sided cups. When the cups were finished, they 
beckoned for Victor, and those who had just 
returned from the white clover fields, to fill them 
with honey. When each cup was full, they 
sealed it with a thin cover, that made Victor 
think of his mother’s jam pots. 

“ Here are ever so many cups with nothing 
in them. I stuck my head into every one of 
them,” Victor said to Brown Jacket. 

“You will lose that head the first thing you 
know. This is the royal nursery. If our queen 
should see you in it, you will be treated as the 
snail and slug were.” 

“Then let us leave now!” 



16 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


No, if you only WILL obey me, I will show 
you the rest of our secrets.” 

Victor promised to do as he was bidden. 

“ I will tell you for what those empty cups are 
used. The queen will soon put an egg not much 
larger than a poppy seed into each of them. 
From these will come little white creatures that 
must be fed with golden food, such as I gave you, 
until they become fairies like us.” 

At that moment there was a loud noise, and 
Victor cried, “O look at the light! What does 
that mean?” Brown Jacket went to see. 

“Some meddlesome man has opened our 
house to see if we are at work. Oh! Oh! he has 
moved the box in which the queen is!” 

The two ran to help her, but all too late; her 
royal highness was crushed to death. 

“ The queen is dead; 

Long live the queen!” 

shouted they all, running hither and thither, not 
knowing what to do. 

One proposed one thing, another something 
else, until, at last, one wise fairy gathered them 
all around him and said: 

“ When the queen is killed, we fairies must 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


17 


have another one, or in course of time, we shall 
all die; and then there will be no one to Jceep 
up our home—” “But if the queen is dead, 
what can you do ?” interrupted Victor. 

“ If there is no young princess in the royal 
nursery to take her mother’s place, we must find 
a young worker, less than three days old. We 
must enlarge this child’s cradle, and feed it with 
food such as only princesses eat, so that when it 
finally steps out of its cradle it will be our queen, 
instead of a little plebian like us.” 

“But there are neither princesses nor little 
workers in the cradles, for I put my head into 
the nursery not ten minutes ago,” Victor said. 

There is nothing to do then, but to live the 
rest of our lives without a queen. 

The fairies all seemed so sad after these 
words were spoken, that Victor whispered to 
Brown Jacket that he thought he should leave 
and go to some place where there was a queen 
and her court, and the fairies were happier. 

“ Very well,” said Brown Jacket. “Our neigh¬ 
bors next door are about to separate their family, 
it is too large for their present home, and some 
must go. L will go as far as their door with you.” 


18 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


TUB GOURT OF THE BROWN JAGKBTS. 

Victor and his friend found themselves once 
more in the open air. Flying to the door of the 
next house, they peeped in. 

There were no guards at the door, or of 
course these two strangers could not have en¬ 
tered. As it was, they boldly walked in. 

What they saw madeVictor open wide his eyes. 

The little brown fairies there were not at 
work, and the queen was rushing angrily about, 
tapping at the door of the room where her 
own daughter, the princess, was cradled, and 
about to come forth to claim her mother’s 
throne. She was only kept from breaking into 
the room and killing her, by the nurses. 

The workers no longer waited upon her, nor 
fed her with honey. They struck her with their 
heads, jumped upon her back and made her carry 
them around. Soon every fairy in the house 
was excited, and those who came in from the 
fields forgot to unload their honey and gold dust. 

Finding that she could rule there no longer, 
the queen rushed out of doors, and was instant- 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


19 


ly followed by an army of workers. Victor 
found himself flying with them, until one fastened 
upon the branch of a tree, where he hung by his 
tiny arms, and was soon joined by the others. 
There they swung all together, in a great buz¬ 
zing, brown ball. 

Then Victor saw a 
strange sight—his own 
father with a queerly 
shaped box in his hand. 

He shook the branch, 
and the whole cluster 
tumbled into the box, 

Victor amongst them. 

The box was then 
turned right side up, 
and the fairies went to 
work lining their new 
home, and making many tiny rooms. 

Presently Victor heard an angry buzzing, and 
glancing about, saw the others advancing toward 
him with their drawn swords. 

“ They have found me out,” he said to him¬ 
self, “and 1 shall have to flee for my life.” 
With that he hastened to the door and flew away. 




20 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


As he was passing the home which he had 
left with the dissatisfied queen, he spied his old 
friend Brown Jacket just inside the door, wait¬ 
ing for him, so he slipped in again. 

“ Well, what is the matter now?” he asked, 
for there was the new queen rushing about and 
crying, “ I will kill her, 1 will kill her, 1 will have 
no rival!” 

“I shall have to explain matters a little,” his 
friend replied. “Every Brown Jacket Princess 
that is born, must become a queen or perish. 
When the first princess came out of her cradle, 
Jhe old queen left, and you know that she now 
has another kingdom. Her daughter reigned 
as queen for three days, then her sister being 
ready to emerge from her cradle, gathered 
together as many followers as she could, and 
went away, and the second princess reigned in 
her stead. 

“ Now the third sister is ready to leave her 
cradle, and the day being too cloudy for the queen 
to go out, there will be a quarrel between the 
two.” 

Just then the young princess came in sight 
With an angry buzz, the queen flew at her sis- 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


21 


ter, and in an instant they were locked in each 
others arms, fighting and biting, and every mo¬ 
ment threatening to stab each other with their 



daggers. They advanced, and retreated, till at 
last the unfortunate princess was forced to the 
ground. The queen jumping upon her, seized 
her by the wing and ran her sword through her, 
killing her instantly. 

With a buzz of triumph, the victorious queen 
ran to the rooms containing the rest of the 
princesses. She tore a hole in the thin walls that 
separated her from them, and killed each of them. 



22 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


The workers were so heartless as not to stop 
her, but carried out their bodies, one by one. 
The queen then went about her royal duties as if 
nothing had happened. 

“I’d like dLfoungbody guard,” she said, look¬ 
ing around at the one which stood meekly about 
her. “Kill off these old ones.” 

At the word of command the workers drew 
their swords, and fell upon the poor guards, who, 
being unarmed, were soon destroyed. 

“Well,” said Victor to his friend, “I don’t 
see how such cruel fairies can be of use to men.” 

“ Come with me and I will show you, and 
you will find that we are no more cruel than 
some of your own people.” 

Victor followed Brown Jacket to the store 
rooms in the top of the home. 

“ Do you see that store of sweets, and do you 
know what will become of it?” he asked. “As 
soon as these rooms are filled with it, some of 
your kind friends, perhaps your own father, will 
take it away from its owners, leaving just enough 
to keep them alive during the winter. When you 
are eating it upon your bread and butter, think 
of me.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


23 


“ Why should we not take it, if they have 
more than they need?” Victor asked. 

“You are robbers,” Brown Jacket said angrily. 

“So are you; you steal from the flowers!” 

“You would not have near so many flowers if 
we did not go from one to another, robbing 
them,” the fairy said laughing, for he was quite 
good natured again. “ But my cousins can tell 
you about that. You will find one of the family 
in yonder hollyhock.” 

“Thank you, I am going to look for him,” 
said Victor, starting off in the direction in which 
his friend was pointing. 


24 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


THE YELLOW PLUSH FAIRIES. 

Still thinking of what had been told him, Vic¬ 
tor carefully brushed his wings with his feet, 
and flew away to a tall hollyhock. He had for¬ 
gotten the directions given him, and had to search 
a long time before he found, hidden in the deep 
heart of a creamy flower, a lovely fairy, dressed 
in yellow plush. 

“Oh!” said Victor, drawing back and resting 
upon the edge of the hollyhock, “Mr. Brown 
Jacket told me 1 should find his cousin here, but 
1 suppose you are his footman.” 

“What! What!! What!!!” exclaimed the fairy, 
and began such a buzzing that Victor almost 
tumbled to the ground with fright. “You need 
not think that because 1 wear yellow plush, and 
am called humble, that 1 am anybody’s footman. 
I am sure that 1 dress much finer than my cousin, 
in his old brown velvet.” 

“Thenyou are his cousin? Victor interrupted. 

“ 1 suppose so,” the fairy answered, “ but I 
am not proud of it. He’s the first of our family 
who ever worked for anybody, and gave up his 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


25 


freedom to be a slave. The rest of us live in our 
own beautiful homes, some in the trees, some in 
the green grass or in mossy hillocks, where we 
build to suit ourselves. Now /,” waving his 
hand, “am a moss fairy, and live in a moss 
house.” 

“Oh! won’t you take me there?” 

“Yes, in the morning. Its late now, and 1 
am sleepy, and shall stay right here until tomor¬ 
row morning.” 

“And what will your mother say to you if 
you stay out all night?” 

“ She won’t care, she is used to it. We sleep 
in the flowers when we are too far away to go 
home. By the way, you had better get into a 
suit like mine.” 

“ How can I?” Victor asked eagerly. 

“Tr-r-r-ry,” answered the fairy drowsily, as 
he crept still deeper into the flower and instantly 
fell asleep. 

Victor too fell asleep, and when daylight 
came he found himself dressed exactly like his 
friend. 

“Come,” said the latter. “Let us go home 
with our honey.” 


26 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


“What a curious noise our wings make,” Vic¬ 
tor said as they flew along. 

“ It is on account of this humming we are 
called Humble or Bumble, not because we are 
anybody’s servants. But you are wrong in sup¬ 
posing that the noise is made by our wings. 
Wise people say that the wings have but little to 
do with it, but that it is made by the vibrations 
of a little membrane at the end of the air ves¬ 
sels on our bodies. In fact, they are fairy drums 
that we play,” answered Yellow-Plush, for that 
was the name of Victor’s new friend. 

Victor expressed no surprise at this queer 
story, but instead began to weep. 

“ What are you crying about?” Yellow Plush 
asked in surprise. 

“I’m hungry,” said Victor, “ please give me 
some breakfast.” 

“ I can not,” said the fairy, “ I must take what 
I have home for a rainy day. Why did you not 
get some in the hollyhock?” 

“ I wasn’t hungry then.” 

“Well, here we are in the midst of a clover 
field, and there is enough food here for a million 
fairies.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


27 


Victor flew from one clover top to another, 
drawing the honey from the deep, purple cups 
with his long tongue. 

“ 1 had a delicious breakfast,” he said, as they 
started off, “ but I dusted some of the flowers 



sadly, and scarcely know how it happened.” 

“ I can tell you how, for I’ve often done .it 
myself,” said the fairy. “ You carried the dust 
on your body from one flower to another. That 
is part of our business. You have often seen 
your mother water her flowers. Well, just as the 


28 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


water makes the plant grow, so the dust from 
one blossom makes the seeds grow in another. 
Were it not for us and our cousins, the clover 
would soon die out. But here we are at home. 
Hello! They’re building a new house.” 

“ That must be hard work.” 

“Oh, no; its like playing foot ball.” 

“Then let us stop and see them,” Victor said. 

One fairy was busy gathering moss. She 
tore each piece into little bits with her mouth, 
rolled them into a ball, which she threw under 
her body and kicked to another fairy, who in 
turn passed it to another. So the ball went on, 
until Victor, who had watched it, saw it seized, 
and made into a sort of felt mat. This they used 
as a roof to cover a little hollow in the ground, 
where the new house was being made. 

“This is my home,” said victor’s guide, nudg¬ 
ing him, and lifting a tiny moss cover, he showed 
him a home with small, round rooms. 

“ My mother built this house,” he continued 
proudly, “ and put food into the rooms for the 
children who occupy them. I’ll let you look 
into them,” and he opened the door. Victor 
peeped in. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


29 


“The child is spinning itself a silk dressl” he 
exclaimed. 

“ Here is one who has worn its silk dress fif¬ 
teen days and its nurse is now taking it off.” 
Victor watched it, and was surprised to see a 
full grown fairy step out. What if we could 
wrap a little child in silk, and in fifteen days 
see it come out a full grown young man or wo¬ 
man! 

“Would you like to see the eggs hatched?” 
asked his guide. “ Come in and I will show you 
how it is done.” 

With that he ducked his head under a small 
arch and disappeared. 

“If you’re tired, sister, I’ll take your place. 
This last was said to a sister fairy who was sit¬ 
ting over some eggs. 

“ Yes, you may take my place until I get 
something to eat,” she replied. 

With that, she stepped down, and Victor’s 
friend getting into her place, began to breathe 
very quickly. 

“ Why do you do that?” Victor asked. 

“ That I may increase the heat of my body, 
and so make the room warmer. You know that 


30 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


hens’ eggs must be kept warm or they will not 
hatch.” 

“ How can you breathe so fast with your 
mouth shut?” 

At this Victor’s friend laughed so much that 
Victor was offended. 

“ There’s nothing funny about that question. 
When I run and have to breath hard, 1 open my 
mouth.” 

“Hal Ha!” continued the fairy, we folks 
don’t breathe through our mouths and you 
should not,” and he laughed all the more. 

Victor stared. 

“ No, sirl If you will just look at the sides of 
my head and body you will find tiny holes there. 
From these run pipes, scarcely larger than a spid¬ 
er web, through my body. The air which passes 
through these is all 1 need to breathe. All fairies 
breathe as we do. Here comes our mother.” 

Victor was so much interested in watching 
the queen mother that he forgot to get out of her 
way. She stopped and looked at him sharply. 
“ Are you one of us?” she asked. 

Victor was about to answer “yes,” but as 
that would not be strictly true, he said nothing. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


31 


“Are you one of us?” the mother repeated. 

“ I scarcely know what you mean,” Victor 
stammered. 

“ 1 mean that, although you appear to be ex¬ 
actly like my children, 1 may find, if 1 look 
closer, that your mouth is not shaped for build¬ 
ing Yellow-Plush homes, and that you have no 
basket in which to carry bread to your children, 
but leave them in our house, and we, not being 
able to tell them from our own, are obliged to 
shelter and feed them.” 

“ 1 do not think that I am one of these creat¬ 
ures,” Victor returned. 

“Until you are sure, you had better stay 
away from us,” and the mother drew her dagger 
so threateningly, that Victor, much fiightened, 
ran to the door, spread his wings, and was soon 
beyond her reach. 


32 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


THE UNDERGROUND FAIRIES. 

“No one seems to want me,” said Victor 
sadly, when he had gone a long distance from 
Yellow-Plush’s home, and sat down to think 
about what he had seen. 

“ Nonsense! V exclaimed a tiny but very clear 
voice, that seemed to come from the ground. 

Victor looked sharply around, but all he could 
see was a being so small that fifty like it could 
have been cradled in his mother’s gold thimble. 

“ Did you speak ? ” asked Victor in surprise. 

“Yes; I said ‘nonsense!’ Don’t you know 
that all fairies have enemies who steal into their 
homes to live upon them ? Even we, small as 
we are, sometimes have to go through life carry¬ 
ing the children of these lazy people upon our 
backs. Do you see that spot on mine now ? It 
is an egg now, but it soon will become one of 
those beggar children who will make my life a 
burden.” 

“I will brush it off !” Victor said, doing so. 

“Thank you, thank you 1 What can I do to 
repay you ? ” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


33 


Victor studied a moment. “I should like to 
see where you live,” he said. 

“You are too big,” the fairy answered, “You 
couldn’t get into our home.” 

Victor pouted. “That’s all 1 want,” he re¬ 
turned. “Can you not make me like yourself, 
other fairies have done so.” 

The fairy still shook its head. 

“I’ll stab you,” Victor cried, running toward 
it and drawing his dagger, for you must remem¬ 
ber that he was yet a Yellow-Plush fairy. 

But the little thing was too near its home to 
be caught, and darted into a tiny hole in the 
ground, which Victor thought must be a fairy 
cistern. 

“Well, it is drowned at any rate!” Victor 
chuckled, 

“No I’m not,”came back in the same clear 
voice, and Victor thought he heard a titter. 

“Oh, come out and let us be friends ! ” he 
called back, curiosity getting the better of his 
anger. 

So the fairy came up. 

“You’re the cleverest fairy I’ve seen yet,” 
Victor said. 


34 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


His friend was greatly pleased by this flattery. 
“ 1 will make you one of us,” it returned; “Follow 
me.” 


Victor did so, and as he clambered over the 
ring of sand that surrounded the door to the 
fairy’s home, felt himself growing smaller and 
smaller, so that by the time the door was reached 
he passed through it as easily as his companion. 
Victor never knew how he was changed, nor 
would the fairy tell him. 


A* *1% 

^ * * 



“Why are your friends carrying those ant 
eggs into your house, do you eat them ?” 

“ Ant eggs, indeed ! Those are our babies. 
They are wrapped up in silk blankets until they 
are old enough to walk. Every morning their 
nurses carry them into the sun to warm them, as, 
of course, living in a cellar, they do not get much 
heat. Now, the sun is too warm and they are 
bringing them back. I, myself, have just been 
out for breakfast and found it in a lady’s sugar 
bowl.” 

“You have,” said another fairy, coming up 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


35 


just then, “ Please give me some. I’ve been so 
busy carrying the children around, I’ve not yet 
had anything to eat.” With that, the two fairies 
put their mouths together, and Victor thought, 
kissed each other, but instead of kissing, one 
was feeding the other. 

Now you must not suppose that these fairies 
talked as people do. No, they had a won¬ 
derful way of making their wants known. Each 
had upon its head two long pointed threads that 
looked like tiny twigs. When one wished to 
speak to another it touched its horns, as we shall 
call them, with its own, and told its thoughts as 
if by telegraph. 

Victor soon learned this, and ran about ask¬ 
ing all manner of questions, until his guide 
warned him that if he were not more careful he 
would get into trouble. 

“You have forms very much like my friends, 
the Brown Jacket Fairies, although you are much 
smaller and have no wings,” said Victor. 

“ Yes, we are related to that family. It is true, 
we are smaller, but you are wrong in saying that 
we have no wings. We workers are too busy 
to be flying about in the air, but our queen and 


36 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


her male companions have large wings, with 
which they fly away. The males never come 
back. When the queen comes and settles down 
to house-keeping, she is too busy to be bothered 
with wings, and so she cuts them off. She never 
goes away again unless we move, when we carry 
her with us. 

“ Poor thing, never goes out of the house 
again!" exclaimed Victor. 

“ Oh, we do every thing to make her happy 1 
We feed and bathe her, and she has ever so 
many servants. But what do you think of our 
house?" 

“It is very strange," Victor said, “and it 
must have been hard work to hollow out all these 
rooms." 

“It was," answered the fairy. “This big 
room that you see, is the family sitting room. 
These halls lead to smaller rooms, in some of 
which we keep our children. In others—" 

“Run! run!" here broke in a thousand excited 
voices. “ Open the doors to the secret rooms, the 
enemy is upon us and we must hide our queen 
and little ones!" 

Victor and his friend went to work with a 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


37 


will, and soon opened doors to a hundred little 
rooms. In less time than it takes to tell, the 
rooms were filled with the children which the 
fairies had carried in. Then the doors were 
closed, and Victor, turning around, saw the house 
filled with strangers. These wretches, although 
near relations, picked up in their mouths all the 
innocent children who had not been hidden, and 
ran off with them. 

“Come, let us try to save some of our 
babies,” cried Victor’s friend, snatching one from 
the enemy’s jaws. Instantly it was set upon by 
the foe, and torn limb from limb, before Victor’s 
very eyes. 

Victor was heart sick, and rushing from the 
house, hid himself in the grass. From his hid¬ 
ing place he saw the army pass, carrying the 
children, still wrapped in their silken covers. 

“I believe I’ll follow and see what is done 
with them,” Victor thought. So he followed at 
a safe distance, until he saw the fairies go into 
their home. Then he slipped in unseen, and 
found that it was like the home he had just left, 
and that some of the fairies in it were like the 
comrades he had lost. 


38 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“ Well,” he said to one of them, “ do you live 
here?” 

“Certainly; 1 was brought here when a baby. 
Were not you?” 

“No,” returned Victor, “Let me tell you 
a secret. I do not intend any harm, but 1 do 
not belong here. I come to see what is done 
with my friend’s little ones, who were stolen.” 

“ I can tell you in one word what they will 
become,” the fairy said in a frightful voice, and 
stooping down it hissed in Victor’s ear, 

“Slaves!” 

Victor drew back horrified. “Shall I be made 
a slave?” he cried. 

“O, no! Only those who are brought here 
very young are made slaves. If they were older 
they would know their own homes, and would 
return to them. But tell me, did my master get 
many slaves?” 

“ Yes, a great many,” answered Victor. 

“Well, I’m glad of that. There will be less 
work for me. Come along now and we will get 
some milk.” 

Victor expressed some surprise that fairies 
had cows, and thought that a cow small enough 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


39 


for them to milk, would be 



a wonder indeed. 
But he found 
that fairy cows 
were very differ¬ 
ent from those 
that he was ac¬ 
customed to see. 
They were tiny 
green creatures 
that lived up¬ 
on the stems 
and leaves of 
plants. Victor 
remembered that 
when his mam¬ 
ma found them 


upon her rose bushes she called them aphides. 





40 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


The herd was pastured upon a thistle, and 
Victor thought if his father had that many cattle 
he would be very rich indeed. 

Meanwhile the fairy had selected a fine fat 
cow. Going up to it with its horns or antennae, 
it tapped two little knobs on its back. This 
made it yield a drop of sweet liquor which Vic¬ 
tor's companion greedily drank. It then went to 
another and “milked ” it in the same way. 

“ Now we must build a fence to protect our 
cows or some other tribe will be here milking 
them, and carrying them away from us. We some¬ 
times have great battles over a herd of cattle.” 

“There is one branch of our family that 
never comes from under the ground except to 
steal cows which they take to the bottom of their 
homes and keep on roots that grow there. The 
milk which they get from them is all that they 
ever have to eat.” 

“These fairies have lived away from the light 
so long that they have become a pale yellow in¬ 
stead of our healthy brown color.” 

While it was talking the slave had not been 
idle. Indeed, these fairies never are idle. With 
a great many others it carried small bits of earth, 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


41 


and built a wall of earth. This was built 
around the thistle and had but one door which 
opened into their own home. As soon as it was 
done, Victor and the slave sat down to rest. 

“ Look, there is a fight, let us go!” said Victor. 

“ No, it is not a fight. My masters are only 
wrestling to amuse themselves.” 

After watching them for some time Victor 
said, “ I must be going. Good by, if I don’t see 
you again.” 

With this he started off, and not heeding 
where he went, fell into a hole. Picking himself 
up, he said, “ Here I am in the fairies home again; 
I beg pardon,” he added, seeing that it was a dif¬ 
ferent family of fairies; “ I’m going right out, but 
will you not tell me first, why you keep these 
blind beetles in the bottom of your home?” 

“ Yes, if you will tell me why people keep 
cats and dogs.” 

“ Why, for pets of course,” 

“That is just why we keep blind beetles. 
We feed and caress them, and even let them ride 
upon our backs. We love them.” 

Victor thanked the fairy, scrambled out, and 
sat down to think what he should do next. 


42 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


PINAN’ MBBDLB FAIRIES. 

Victor rested a moment, then looked around. 

He saw something sparkling not far away, and 
set out to investigate. It was a pool of water 
upon which the sun shone, through the green 
leaves above. 

Victor thought it a lovely place and crept out 
upon a twig that he might obtain a better view. 
While he was gazing about him he lost his bal¬ 
ance and fell into the water below. 

“I’m drowning!” he cried. But at that mo¬ 
ment the wind blew a tiny raft within his reach. 
He caught it, and by great effort drew himself 
upon it. 

“I’m saved, but how shall I ever get to land 
again,” he said, as he looked about and saw 
water upon all sides. 

At that arose a chorus of voices. 

“ Who is talking?” he asked. 

“ We are!” 

“I am!” 

“Let me speak!” came back in as many dif¬ 
ferent tones. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


43 


“Silence!” Victor cried out, “Silence!” and 
stamped his foot until the raft trembled, and he 
was afraid he should be again thrown into the 
water. When the raft stopped rocking, Victor 
looked around and saw that there was something 
in the water close beside the raft. 

“ Why, where did you come from?” he asked. 

“Out of that shell.” 

Victor looked where his companion pointed, 
and saw not only the empty shell, but that his 
raft was a collection of unbroken eggs all fas¬ 
tened together. 

“How did you get out?” Victor asked. 

“ When you stamped your foot you broke my 
shell, and I crawled out.” 

“ Perhaps you can tell me how to reach the 
shore,” said Victor. 

“ There is only one way in which you can do 
that. You must crawl into the shell which 1 
left and become one of us. After you stay there 
a while the shell will open, and you will find 
yourself swimming in the water.” 

“ Then 1 can swim to the shore,” Victor said. 

“It will do you no good if you do, for you will 
have neither feet to walk upon, nor wings to fly 


44 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


with, until you have been in the water two or 
three weeks, then you will be able to fly where 
you please.” 

“ I’ll drown before I’ll go in an egg!” Victor 
said, tossing his head, but he came so near the 
edge of the raft that he again fell into the water. 

Without another word his companions picked 
him up and crowded him into the empty shell. 

Then Victor, although his body was crushed, 
pluckily cried out, “How long shall I have to 
stay in this dark hole?” 

“ Until you are strong enough to get out.” 

Victor was very angry at this answer, and 
beat his head against his prison walls until they 
burst. He then found himself in the water, with 
a thousand little creatures, some larger, some 
smaller than himself. 

They were all swimming about, seeming to 
enjoy themselves, and Victor tried to join them. 
But he felt that he was smothering under water, 
and began to sink. 

Three or four kind friends rushed to help him. 
Two seized his head and dragged it under water, 
while two others held up in the air a little tube 
at the end of his body, and soon Victor felt the 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


45 


fresh air enter this tube, and pass through him. 

“ You will have to learn to do that for your¬ 
self,” one of the helpers said. “ I must say that 
you are the most stupid creature that ever lived 
among us, or you would at least know how to 
breathe.” 

“ Where am I ?” Victor asked, and what 
am I?” 

You’re a wiggler,” giggled a companion, “But 



if you live two or three weeks you will be a Pin- 
an’ Needle Fairy, and then for a good timel” 

“ Useful rather, I should say!” returned Vic¬ 
tor. “ Will there be much sewing to do?” 

“ Sewing! Who said anything about sewing? 
There are other uses for Pinan’ Needles—” here 
the wiggler lowered his voice to a whisper; 
“Sometimes they prick the fingers of boys and 
girls.” 

“Oh, what naughty folks you arel I have 
punished many of you for piercing my hands, 


46 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


and if ever I do such a thing I hope I may be 
punished too,” Victor said solemnly. 

Victor now had a strangely shaped body. It 
was something like a worm. Along his sides 
and around his mouth were tufts of hair. At one 
end of his body were two little tubes, through 
one of which he breathed. 

When he was hungry he would move the 
hairs about his mouth, and make the water flow 
into it. In the water he always found food 
enough for a good meal. 

Victor had three suits of clothes while he 
was in the water, all just alike; but his fourth 
was very different from the others, and sur¬ 
prised him not a little. 

When he got into it he looked much like a 
tadpole, only he was very, very small. His 
body was bent, and he had two horns on his 
back, which he thrust out of the water to get 
air. 

One day he found himself upon the surface 
of the water. He bent his back, and in an in¬ 
stant the skin between his horns burst, and draw¬ 
ing back his head, he put it through this open¬ 
ing. Then he pulled his feet out, and then but 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


47 


the end of his body remained in the old skin, 
which he now used for a boat. 

Victor knew that if he touched water with 
his head or chest he 
would surely drown, for 
he had seen many of 
his newly born friends 
sink before they could 
try their wings. 

But he stood firmly 
in his little boat, till at 
last, his feet were on 
the water. It bore him up until his wings were 
dried, when away he flew. 

Soon he was joined by a fairy like himself, to 
whom Victor said “ How queer we are; not a bit 
as we were in the water.” 

“ No, our bodies are long, and round, and I 
think quite elegant. We have two big bright 
eyes, and you have bushy plumes upon your head.” 

“That is all true,” said Victor, “ But where 
are the pinan’ needles you were talking about? I 
don’t see any.” 

“They are in the tiny case on our heads, and 
are as sharp as swords. After we run the needle 



48 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


into some little boy’s skin, we pour a drop of 
poison into the wound, and then suck the blood.” 

When Victor heard this, he suddenly became 
bloodthirsty, and alighting upon an old man’s 
hand attempted to open his pinan’ needle case. 
He quite forgot that he hoped to be punished if 
he ever did so cruel an act as pricking anyone. 

But for some reason, he was not able to 
pierce the skin, and while he sat thinking about 
it, his companion flew by and called out mock¬ 
ingly: 

“ I forgot to tell you that as you are a male 
Pinan’ Needle Fairy you can’t bite; it is only the 
females who can do that.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND, 


40 


THE WINGED FLOWERS. 

By this time Victor was homesick for his own 
playground, so away he flew toward home. 

In crossing the fence he struck his wing on a 
picket, and tumbled into a honeysuckle near by. 
Attempting to fly again he found one wing broken, 
and sank to the ground in despair. As he lay 
there wondering what was to become of him, 
now that he could not fly, and his legs were too 



delicate for much walking, he saw a long hairy 
creature coming over the ground toward him. 

“ I suppose you are a fairy, too,” Victor said, 
as the little fellow came nearer, “or would be if 
you were not so very ugly!” 

“ Ugly, am I? If you could see me a month 
hence you would be charmed by my beauty. You 
would run miles for the sake of making me your 
own. I am one of those gay creatures that flit 
about the fields, and look like flying flowers. I 



50 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


gather perfume from the wild mint. I sip honey 
from the purple thistle, upon which my dainty 
feet find a safe foothold. 

I flit, I fly, from flower to flower, 

1 dart from weed to mallow, 

I lose myself in virgin’s bowers, 

I drink where streams run shallow. 

I fly o’re hill, 1 float o’er down, 

O’er meadows green I zigzag, 

And with my wings all gold and brown, 

I fan me, on the blue flag.” 

Victor arose, and walking to him, ran his an¬ 
tennae over the new friend. 

“Well,” he said at length, “ 1 cannot feel any 
wings upon your body, nor see any, although 
these two shining balls upon my head contain 
hundreds of eyes, and I see everything near me. 
And if you call your feet dainty”—and Victor 
paused. 

“It is true that I have no wings now, and 
that my feet are large and clumsy,” said the 
hairy stranger patiently.” But if you could live 
my life, and undergo its changes, you would find 
that all I’ve said about my future self is true.” 

“ I am able to live your life,” Victor inter¬ 
rupted, boastingly.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


51 


“ There are many changes to be made, many 
trials to overcome before we become perfect— 
just as anything worth having or being is diffi¬ 
cult of attaining,” continued the hairy creature. 

“Well,” said Victor, “tell me howto make 
myself over, and I will go along with you, and 
become perfect too.” 

“You cannot change yourself, but 1 will do it 
for you.” 

So saying, he raised his horrid head (which 
looked to Victor as large as a lion’s) and waived 
it over him saying: 

“Dragon, Dragon, may you be 
Another fairy, just like me, 

Of your body sections twelve, 

I will make to spin and delve. 

Half a dozen eyes I’ll make, 

Half a dozen legs you’ll take. 

For your breath the air must flow 
Through many holes all in a row. 

After while you will begin 
With nature’s wheel to learn to spin. 

In coming days you’ll eat and eat”— 

“ GoodI” interrupted Victor, “ I do so like to 
eat.” He was surprised at the sound of his own 
voice, which was now changed as completely as 
his body, by the magic of his companion’s words 


52 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


He shuddered to see that he was like him. 

As they started off, the new friend said, 
“ Now to work! We must begin at once in order 
to get a good meal before bedtime.” 

“How much can you eat?” Victor asked. 

“ When I’m very hungry I can eat twice ns 
much as I weigh.” 

“ Oh! Look at that nest of spiders in the tree,” 
exclaimed Victor. 

“ No, no; those are not spiders, but cousins 
of mine who live in apple trees. You will find 
us on almost every tree and plant that grows, 
sometimes one alone, and again in large com¬ 
panies.” 

By the time this speech was finished, Victor 
had climbed upon a bush, and was eating its ten- 
derest leaves. His friend chose a different kind 
of plant. 

For a long time they ate and ate, until Vic¬ 
tor began to grow very dull, and cared for noth¬ 
ing more. He saw that his friend was growing 
pale and sickly. He began to have a queer feel¬ 
ing in his back, and turning his head, saw to his 
horror, that it was slowly splitting open, and 
that every movement he made, only increased the 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


53 


rent. Victor felt his back puffing up out of this, 
and in a moment he drew himself out of his old 
skin, as a lady draws her hand out of her glove. 

He was pleased to find himself in a new suit 
of clothes, and glancing at his friend he saw that 
he also was in new clothes. They lay quite still 
a while, resting. Then Victor remarked, “ I hope 
we shall not have to do that often!” 

We shall, though, several times. It is one of 
the greatest trials of our life. 

At this point, a robin out for his breakfast, 
came hopping along. Spying Victor’s friend, 
he flew up into the bush after him, but in the 
twinkling of an eye he lowered himself to the 
ground with a gossamer rope which he carried in 
his mouth, and escaped. 

Victor had quickly hidden himself under a 
leaf, and this saved bis life. 

The disappointed robin then flew away, and 
Victor’s friend called out, “ Ha, Ha! No impu¬ 
dent robin will breakfast off me to-day!” 

After changing their skins several times, they 
began again to feel dull, and Victor’s companion 
said gravely, “we are now about to take a long 
rest. When it is over we shall be perfect. I see 


54 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


that you have been enjoying a plant unlike the 
one which I have been eating. Therefore as 
fairies we shall be different. Go, now, nature 
herself will change you.” 

So, upon a convenient branch, Victor spun 
himself a silken web with the spinning wheel in 
his upper lip, and hung head downward in its 
meshes. 

“Is your web woven,” called his friend. 

“Yes.” 

“Well, there you must remain for several 
hours, until you split open and get rid of your 
old skin. I must leave you now for my own 
time has come.” 

Victor found a long, hard task before him. 
He had to curve, twist, and wiggle before the 
skin even broke, and he was able to emerge, an 
entirely different form. 

He had neither bands nor feet, but with two 
of the joints of his body he grasped his skin, and 
with a quick jerk pulled it off. And there he 
hung by the tip of his body, in a transparent shell, 
with the outlines of his future wings, head and 
feet well marked out. He could not move, but 
felt that he was growing within the shell. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 55 

Meanwhile, happening to glance at his friend, 
he concluded that the latter had stolen a march 
upon him; for instead of hanging in an uncom¬ 
fortable position where he was blown about by 
every breeze, he had passed a cord as fine as a 
cobweb around his body, and fastened himself 
securely to a twig.. 

Having no 
mouth, Victor 
could ask no 
questions then, 
but later he 
learned that he 
belonged to a 
nobler family of fairies than his friend, and so 
had to undergo greater trials. 

In these little homes our friends remained 
some weeks. 

At last their prison walls burst, and the two 
now beautiful winged fairies, poised upon a 
flower, and sipped its honey. 

Their drinking cups were long tubes that 
curled under their heads when not in use. Their 
bodies were covered with soft down, and their 
legs were slender and graceful. But nothing 






56 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


could exceed in beauty the large, strong wings 
that bore them circling through the air. They 
were covered with the tiniest scales imaginable, 
of every color, that glittered like dew in the 
morning sun. 

“Are you satisfied with what you have seen?” 
asked Victor’s friend, as they flitted hither and 
thither together. “Are we not happy and lovely 
creatures, and well called ‘Winged Flowers’? 
I must leave you now. I have a companion 
awaiting me in yonder meadow. But remember 
never to despise a humble creature; you know 
not what beauty lies hidden even in so ugly a one 
as you thought me to be.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


. 57 


THE SIEK FAIRIES. 

When Victor’s companion left him, he felt 
lonely, and flew away to perch upon the window 
sill of a house not far distant. The window was 
open, and he stood looking into the room. 

Suddenly he wheeled around and exclaimed, 
“Why,it must be raining!” 

But no, the sky was cloudless. 

Turning about again, he looked into the room, 
and found that the noise he heard was not rain, 
but was made by thousands of little worms eat¬ 
ing leaves. He flew into the room. 

“ What are you doing?” he asked one of the 
feeders. 

“We are eating.” 

“ So I see, but why are you so greedy about 
it? You eat as if you never had anything 
before.” 

“ We can’t work until we are large and strong, 
and we can’t grow large and strong unless we 
eat.” 

“Oh, pshaw! what work can you do?” 

“ We can make silk for people to wear.” 


58 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“ Well, here are more creatures who work for 
people,” Victor thought, but he only said, “I 
wish you would show me how you make silk. 
What do you have to do?” 

“We go through the same changes that you 
did when you became what you are now—but 
come here.” 



Victor moved nearer, and putting his ear 
down, listened to an odd pricking inside a little 
ball which he saw. In a moment the shell 
burst, and a baby worm, covered with black hair, 
crept out. 



VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


59 


“ That’s the way we begin life,” continued the 
worm. “ But you had better join us.” 

“ No thank you,” Victor answered; “I couldn’t 
think of it. I have just begun to enjoy life, and 
don’t care to make any more of the disagreeable 
changes I have made, But if you will kindly 
tell me all about yourself, I’ll take it as a great 
favor.” 

“ I will,” said his new friend. “ Where shall 
I begin?” 

“Tell me first how you happen to be living in 
a house. I thought that fairies usually lived in 
beautiful places in green woods.” 

“Not always. We live in houses because 
people learned hundreds of years ago that we are 
very useful. In China, the emperor himself 
adopted us into his family, and the empress 
reared us with her royal hands. In return we 
spun for her gorgeous silks, with which she 
clothed her family. 

The French found out what we could do, and 
carried us to France, and finally to America. 

They gave us a new kind of food which we 
like pretty well, in the absence of our own dear 
mulberry leaves. We have lived in houses 


60 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


so long that we have become like hot house 
plants that die if left out of doors.” 

“ How strange,” exclaimed Victor. 

“Yes, and here is something stranger. After 
a while we shall get wings as you did, but shall 
never be able to fly with them.” 

“Why?” 

“ Because our great-great-grandfathers, when 
adopted by the Chinese emperor, were not al¬ 
lowed to use their wings for fear they would fly 
away, so their children from that time have for¬ 
gotten how to use them.” 

“ That is very sad!” exclaimed Victor. “Can 
you never learn again?” 

“/ never can, but if my children should be 
allowed to live in the open air, my grandchildren 
would then be strong enough to fly.” 

“ How cruel men are to keep you shut up! 
But tell me about your life in this house.” 

“ When I first crept out of the egg, as you 
saw my young friend do a few moments ago, I 
was as small as it is, and lay upon a table with 
thousands like myself. Presently, into the room 
came a pretty, young girl, who was glad to see 
us; she placed a coarse net over us, and put 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


61 


leaves upon that, to tempt us to crawl upon 
them, which we soon did. 

Then she shook us off upon a table, and gave 
us a great many leaves to eat, all nicely cut up, 
and very tender. At first we had eight meals a 
day. In a few days I became very pale. I fast¬ 
ened myself to a twig with silken threads, and 
went to sleep. When I awoke, I found myself 
with a new skin, and the old one was still hang¬ 
ing where 1 had left it. Three times since then 
I have changed my skin, and now 1 am about 
ready to spin my silken robe, which people call 
a cocoon—O dear, 1 feel very faint!” 

Victor was very much troubled for his friend 
was very pale, and seemed to be in great pain. 
Then he lay quiet for some time, and one of the 
others said that he was dead. 

Victor was much touched by this tragedy, 
and asked the fairy if many of them died in 
that way, and was told that they did. “It is a 
terrible disease that kills thousands of us. Now 
if you will wait a little while you will see us 
spin our cocoons.” 

“Please tell me how you make silk?” Victor 
asked. 


62 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“ Well, it is a long story. Some inquisitive 
men have examined our spinning machines, and 
I happened to see them,—it was interesting. We 
live, you know, upon leaves which contain the 
silk, After we get what nourishment we need 
from the leaves, by a magic which I cannot 
explain, we cast out the silk, which we store 
in little double tubes, where we keep it until 
we wish to use it. When it is time to spin 
the cocoons, we pass the thread through a little 
hole in our heads, and varnish it, which makes 
it water-proof and handsome.” 

“Well, well!” said Victor thoughtfully, “and 
after your cocoon is spun, what do you do?” 

“Some of us will be allowed to live and be¬ 
come dusty creatures with wings. But far the 
greater number of us are killed.” 

“ I shouldn’t care for such a fate.” 

“Our life work is ended,” answered the fairy, 
meekly. 

“ What becomes of your lovely silken cocoons 
when you are dead?” 

“They are soaked in water until they can be 
unwound. Then they are sent away to be made 
into silk, satin and velvet. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND 


63 


“If it were not for fairies like us, little boys 
could never wear black velvet suits/’ 

“ Humph!” returned Victor, and he flew away 
without stopping to thank his friend for the story, 
for a boy in a velvet suit was trying to catch 
him with a silk butterfly net—and the boy looked 
very much like Victor. 




64 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


THE WICKED HOUSE FAIRY. 

Victor had now lived a great many lives, and 
with the exceptions of the times when he pricked 
the old man’s hand, and ate his own brothers at 
the bottom of the pond, he had been harmless 
and docile. Now he was about to become a fairy 
that every one dislikes. 

You remember that he was still a Winged 
Flower. In trying to escape from the boy with 
the butterfly net, he flew up and settled upon his 
father’s stable. 

There he decided that although he was so 
beautiful, his life was full of danger, and he 
would better make a change to a plainer from. 

So he looked about for a new family that he 
might join, for he had learned that the air was 
filled with creatures more curious than any en¬ 
chanted people that he had yet heard about. 

His attention was attracted by a small, but 
very active fairy, that flew hither and thither. 
His appearance suited Victor who went up to him 
and asked, “ do you have a good time?” 

“Yes, we are the jolliest fairies on earth!” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


65 


“What do you do?” 

“ First, we live about stables, and tease horses 
and men who take care of them; then we fly in¬ 
to houses, bite people, eat their food and tickle 
them when they are asleep. They cover their win¬ 
dows with wire nets to keep us out; they spread 
sweetened poison for us to drink; they place 
sticky foot-falls and snares of every kind to 
catch us. Some perish, of course, but those who 
escape have the gayest lives that any one can im¬ 
agine.” 

“ I’ll join you fellows,” Victor said, decided¬ 
ly, as he and his friend settled upon the fence, 
together. 

“You will have to go through a number 
of changes, as 1 did. First—” 

“I know them all/’ said Victor. “First an 
egg in a dark place, then a mean, crawling worm, 
then a long sleep, and at last the perfect creature 
that lives scarcely long enough to pay for the 
trouble. No, no! I’ve been through all that, and 
don’t care to try it again. Please make me like 
yourself without all that fiddle-dee-dee.” 

“ I dare not touch so magnificent a creature 
as you are,” House-Fairy returned, but I will 


66 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


mesmerize you. Then if you are not just like 
me, you will imagine that you are.” 

“That will do quite as well,” answered Vic¬ 
tor. “Proceed.” 

So the House-Fairy looked very wise, and 
shook his fist in Victor’s face, when lol Victor’s 
four beautiful wings fell off, and were replaced 
by a pair of transparent ones that looked like 
thin slivers of ice when the sun shines on them, 
and his body shrank until he was no larger than 
his little brown companion. 

Then the two flew away to tease the poor 
horses who stamped their feet and lashed their 
tails. Then to the coachman, who lay upon a 
pile of sweet hay, soundly sleeping, with an 
empty tumbler beside him. He was snoring 
loudly with his mouth wide open, and Victor 
thought it would be great fun to awaken him. 
He crawled over his face, and choosing a spot, 
opened out his case of instruments, and began 
to tease the coachman. With his file he scraped 
his nose and chin, until the man suddenly closed 
his mouth with a loud snap. 

Victor, terribly frightened, flew away. His 
companion was nowhere to be seen, and it was 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


67 


some time before the man opened his mouth, and 
Victor saw his friend crawl out of the horrible 
cave where he had been buried. 

The fairy flew to the edge of the tumbler from 
which the man had been drinking, and began to 
wipe his small, transparent wings, to dry them. 

Victor followed, but his curiosity led him in¬ 
side of the tumbler, and 
in the bottom he found 
some sweetened brandy 
which he began to sip. 

“ Won’t you have 
some?” he called to his 
companion. 

‘‘Go away,” said 
Victor’s friend, as he 
came near; you’re 
drunk!” 

At this Victor be¬ 
came very angry, and like many men in the 
same condition, began to quarrel with his best 
friend, who thereupon flew at him, and bit him. 
The brandy, too, was beginning to make him ill, 
and it was some time before he could crawl to the 
open air for relief. 








VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


When he was better, he said to his friend, “ I 
beg your pardon.” 

“ It is granted,” the other answered grandly, 
“and if you’ll behave yourself, we’ll go to the 
house.” 

“What house? I don’t see any house.” 

“Then you have no eyes.” 

“ I have as many eyes as other people.” 

“That is, you have—” 

“When I’m Victor I have two, and you have 
only two yourself,” he interrupted, tapping the 
two great brown knobs that almost covered his 
friends head. 

“ Ha, ha, ha, hal” the other laughed, “ If you 
are not the most mistaken fairy that ever lived. 
Each one of my eyes is made of thousands of 
little eyes all joined in one.” 

“Then why don’t we see everything a thou¬ 
sand times? There’s a puzzle for you.” 

“When you are Victor with your two eyes, 
do you see everything double?” demanded his 
friend. 

Victor was obliged to confess that he did not, 
and flew humbly along beside his companion, but 
he wished he were a dragon fairy once more, 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


G9 


with his friend between his jaws. 

Before long they reached the house. They 
waited outside until somebody opened the wire 
door, when they darted in and flew to the sugar 
bowl which stood upon the tea table. Victor 
put out his tongue and filled the little cup which 
he had in the end of it, and began to eat the sugar 
of which he was very fond. 

• Who should come in at this moment but Vic¬ 
tor’s own mother. She had a newspaper in her 
hand, and with it tried to drive the two naughty 
fairies out of doors. How Victor wished that he 
could explain to her. But then it was very droll, 
too, that she did not know her own son. 

The two flew away out of his mother’s reach, 
and settled upon the wall. 

“ Run, Nellie, and bring the broom,’’she said 
to her little daughter. Nellie did so, and they be¬ 
gan chasing Victor and his friend toward the door. 
They did not heed where they were going, so 
busy were they watching the fairies flying above 
them, and the mother tripped over Nellie, and 
down they both went. 

This was too much for the good natured com¬ 
panions and in an instant Victor laughed out, 


70 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND 


“Down you go, so, so, so! ” 

“Up we go, ho, ho! ” 

sang his friend, as the two alighted upon the ceil¬ 
ing, and began walking about. 

“ Here’s a queer thing,” said Victor. 

“What is queer?” demanded his friend. 

“That we can walk up side down, and not 
fall off! Explain it to me please.” 

“ Hold up your front foot. How many joints 
has it?” 

“ One, two, three, four, five,” Victor counted. 

“ What is that on the last joint?” 

“A pair of claws, and a flat, soft pad, which is 
split in two, and has fine hairs on it.” 

“ There is a sticky fluid upon the hairs, and 
this, together with the air pressing against you 
as you walk upon the ceiling, keeps you from 
falling. Let us go now and spoil a few books 
for these people.” 

Victor usually was very careful of his father’s 
books, but his nature seemed to have changed 
with his form, and he was bent upon mischief. 

They were soon working away on some choice 
books with their file-like tongues, scraping off 
the polish, leaving them spotted and worn looking. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


71 


Then once more they flew to the tea table, 
and Victor fell into the cream jug. 

“ How shall I get out?” he screamed, for he 
expected his mother to come at any moment and 
scald him to death. O, what a death to die! In 
his mother’s own cream-jug! 

“Try to swim to the edge of the jug,” his 
companion called to him. 

Victor tried, but sank twice before he was 
finally able to drag himself out. 

No sooner was he out of danger, however, 
than he was again in mischief. His father was 
asleep in a chair not far off—for it was a hot after¬ 
noon—and Victor alighted upon his face, and 
walked all over it, laughing at the trail of cream 
that he left upon it. It looked as if some one 
had drawn a map upon his face. But just as the 
map was finished his father awoke, and exclaimed, 
“ I’ll kill a few of these nuisances!” He went in¬ 
to a little room, and returned with a small bel¬ 
lows, and with it filled the air with powder, so 
that the fairies found it very hard to breathe. 

“We’ll die if we stay in here!” said Victor’s 
friend. So they crawled through a hole in the 
wire net that covered the window, and escaped. 


72 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


When they were outside, Victor said, “We have 
done nothing but mischief this afternoon. Are 
you fairies good for anything?” 

“Yes, we prevent much illness,” the other 
answered, “ because we eat the decayed matter 
that might cause it, if allowed to lie about and 
taint the air. The humblest creatures are of use 
to man in many ways.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


73 


THE SPINNER FAIRY. 

At this moment the two heedlessly flew into 
a net that was stretched among the branches of a 
bush. So fine and transparant a web was it, they 
had not seen it. In shape it was somewhat like 
a wagon wheel, with the spokes connected by 
delicate threads. 

In the center, where the hub of a real wheel 
would be, sat a fat, wicked fairy, glaring at our 
friends with her eight fierce eyes. Her head was 
about one-third as large as her whole body, and 
eight legs and arms grew upon it. The remain¬ 
der of her body looked to Victor like a great ob¬ 
long ball. 

The fairy sat still while Victor and his friend 
were struggling in her snare, but the more they 
tried to escape the faster they were held, until, 
quite tired out, they ceased struggling. 

When they were quiet, the fat fairy left the 
center of her home, and running swiftly along 
one of the spokes—which bent but did not break 
under her weight—she reached Victor’s compan¬ 
ion. Biting him savagely, she poured some poison 


74 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


which she carried in her jaw, into the wound, 
which soon killed the poor thing. 

Then she started toward Victor, who was 
paralyzed with fear when he saw her coming. 
He expected 
touch of the 
fairy’s jaws, in¬ 
stead of being 
killed, he was 
turned into a 
fairy like herself. 

So surprised 
was she at this, 
that she tum¬ 
bled—as Victor 
thought—to the 
ground, and he 
began to shake with laughter. 

The fairy hearing this, recovered her courage 
and began to climb up the rope by which she 
had let herself down, instead of falling. 

“Hello!” said Victor, who was now free from 
the net. “ Who are you?” 

“lama Spinner Fairy,” said the other, who 
was yet so much afraid of Victor that she 











VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


75 


sat upon the edge of the net, ready to drop to 
the ground at a moment’s notice. 

“A Spinner Fairy,” repeated Victor, very 
slowly, as if he were a teacher examining a 
school boy. “You’re related to all the other fair¬ 
ies around here, I suppose.” 

At this the Spinner Fairy became very angry. 
“ You are greatly mistaken sir,” she said. “ We 
are the children of a woman who contended with 
a goddess herself in a grand spinning match. The 
goddess was so angry that she turned the woman 
into a fairy like ourselves. We belong to the 
proud Arachnida family.” 

“ You look very much like the other fairies that 
I’ve been meeting lately,” Victor said, teasingly. 

“’Tis false,” cried his hostess, quite forgetting 
her fear in excitement. “ Did you ever see one 
of those common fairies with a body divided into 
only two parts? No indeed; every one of them has 
three parts in his body and only six legs and 
arms, while we have eight; besides which we 
have no disfiguring antennae, or horns, upon our 
heads, with which we tap our friends or enemies, 
as the case may be. Then we build ourselves 
such fine silken homes.” 


76 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“Where do you get your silk, I’d like to 
know. Out of your mouths, as my friends, the 
Winged Flowers, do?” 

“You’re not very wise if you know no better 
than that.” 

“Well, you needn’t tell me; I’ll soon find out 
for myself,” said Victor, beginning to look him¬ 
self over. “Oh, I have found out the secret. 
Here are four little sacs at the end of the body 
that are full of holes smaller than the point of a 
cambric needle. Now I see many of the tinniest 
silk threads pass through these holes and twist 
into one. One alone, however, is so delicate 
that the finest hair is coarse compared to it. And 
this net that you spread to catch heedless people 
is your home also?” 

“Yes,” said the fairy, shortly, for while Vic¬ 
tor was learning how to spin, she had gone to his 
late companion, and was eating him. Victor was 
about to drive her away, but the spinner, having 
finished her meal, began to sing. 

“ A fairy built her home on high, 

The bushes green among, 

Aud there of cobwebs bright and gay 
Her childrens’ hammock sv/ung—” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


77 


“You sing horribly out of tune!” exclaimed 
Victor. 

The fairy pretended not to hear him, and said 
“ 1 spend a good deal of my time in the center of 
my home, but come with me and I will show you 
"a place that I like even better.” 

She led the way to a little tunnel made of the 
same web. “ In this 1 hide myself,” she said, 
“ ready to spring out upon unlucky insects walk¬ 
ing by.” 

“ What is that little brown ball?’, Victor asked. 

“ It contains my children. I’ve about a hun¬ 
dred of them in that silk cradle, covered with 
blankets, that I spun myself. They stay there 
until they are big enough to get out.” 

“ By-the-way, where is Mr. Spinner Fairy?” 

“1 killed him.” 

Victor was shocked. “ And you ate him, too, 
no doubt!” he said. 

“ No, I didn’t eat him, but he was of no use 
to me, the house was built; I had to catch food 
for myself and children, and did not propose to 
support him, too.” 

“ Now,” said Victor, “you are altogether the 
worst fairy I ever saw. You ate my friend; you 


78 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


set traps for the innocent, and you own to have 
killed your own husband; so I’m going to pun¬ 
ish you, by making you a subject for the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons.” 

Thereupon, he rushed at her, killed her, and 
dragged her body to a flat, smooth stone. “ This' 
will do for a table,” he thought. He took up a 
rose leaf which an insect had rolled into the form 
of a trumpet, and blew a long, loud blast through 
it. Immediately he was surrounded by a class of 
fairies like himself, who took their places around 
the table. 

Victor, who had put on spectacles, like any 
professor, then plucked a long blade of grass, and 
pointing, said: “This, gentlemen, is the head; 
these the eight eyes, the legs, and the abdomen. 
You see that Spinner Fairies differ from other 
fairies, in having lungs, which are little sacs 
situated upon the abdomen.” 

“Observe the duct where the web is spun 
And”—just here the lesson was suddenly ended 
by a flock of blackbirds which swept down and 
carried off the whole class. 

Professor Victor only saved his life by crawl¬ 
ing under the table. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


79 


the great owl, with the white gross. 

When Victor ventured to leave his hiding 
place, he found himself beneath a large cherry 
tree which he thought he had seen before, so he 
stopped a moment to remember where he was. 

As he was looking about he saw a sight that 
frightened him so that he fell upon his back, and 
lay like one dead. 

Unfortunately it was impossible for him to 
close his many eyes to keep out the horrid sight, 
so he gazed beyond it, up among the branches of 
the tree. 

While he was staring thus, he heard a loud 
noise in the leaves, and a creature that looked to 
poor Victor like an enormous owl, settled upon 
one of the lower limbs of the tree, and looked in 
surprise at the Spinner lying with crossed legs, 
apparently lifeless. 

Suddenly the new comer flew toward Victor, 
with such a deafening noise that he forgot his 
first fear, and jumped up. 

But there was the frightful object, just as he. 
had seen it at first, and again he fell over, while 


80 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


the intruder continued to fly toward him with 
increasing noise. 

“ Ah, ha!” the latter exclaimed. “ What’s the 
cause of this?” and he sat down near Victor, who 
noticed that the noise ceased when its wings 
were not in motion. 

“ OhI” sobbed Victor, “ can’t you see what is 
the matter? I only escaped being carried away 
by a lot of blackbirds, to be frightened to death 
by the ghost of a white horse. I almost wish the 
blackbirds had found me too.” 

At the word ghost, the great owl (for such it 
seemed to Victor) crouched in the grass beside 
him, and glanced fearfully about. 

This only made Victor the more afraid. But 
as the Great Owl did not see anything unusual 
about him, he said, “ pooh, I’m not afraid. If 
there’s' anything around here I’ll scare him 
away.” And again he began that deafening noise. 

“ Oh stop!” exclaimed Victor, “you’re worse 
than the ghost.” 

“ Well, really,” returned the Great Owl as he 
looked up and down, and all around him, “ I don’t 
see anything to scare you, although I’ve more 
eyes than you have—a triangle of them in my 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


81 


face, besides a few hundreds in each corner of 
my head.” 

“ Then if you can see so well, look at the 
trunk of that cherry tree,” said Victor, taking 
care not to look himself, “and tell me if that is 
not the ghost of a white horse clinging to it.” 

The Great Owl looked where Victor pointed; 
then laughed merrily. 

Victor felt his courage return with his friend’s 
laughter. 

“ If you are not afraid of me,” the other con¬ 
tinued, “ you need not be afraid of that thing.” 
Then with really owlish wisdom he began to lec¬ 
ture Victor: 

“ That ghost is about as much of a ghost as 
is ever seen—” 

“Oh, well, what is that thing?” Victor inter¬ 
rupted, for he was beginning to tire of the lec¬ 
ture. 

“ That is my old coat that 1 left hanging on 
the tree, to dry.” 

“Your mackintosh that you wear in rainy 
weather, is it?” 

“I used to wear it in all kinds of weather, 
but I’ll never use it again.” 


82 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“ Why not?” 

“ Too small. You outgrow your coats your¬ 
self.” 

Yes, then Mamma gives them to smaller boys. 
who can’t afford to buy them.” 

“Well, I’ll give you my old coat. Come and 
try it on.” 

Victor was yet a little afraid, but he was 
ashamed to show it, and allowed the great owl 
to lead him up to his old coat. 

This really was a thin, white, transparent skin, 
clinging with truely ghostly, hollow limbs, to the 
bark of the cherry tree, a foot or two above the 
ground. 

“Try it on,” said the Great Owl. 

Victor allowed himself to be hoisted into the 
hollow shell through the opening in the back, 
and before he knew what was happening to him, 
the Great Owl clapped the two edges together, 
and Victor found himself a prisoner in the coat. 

Then his head and legs and body grew until 
the shell was a perfect fit. 

But how changed was the spinner now! 

He was no longer an Anachnida, for he now 
had but six legs, while his body was divided into 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


83 


three parts instead of but two. And then no 
sooner did he find himself comfortably dressed 
in the Great Owl’s coat, than he felt a strong 
desire to, burrow in the ground. 

So he crept down and worked his way under¬ 
neath the loose earth, where he met several other 
people just like himself, with whom he began to 
talk. 

“ How do you happen to be here?” he asked 



a restless fellow who seemed to be making his 
way toward the surface. 

“ I’ve always lived here,” he answered, “ but 
I’m not going to stay much longer.” 

“But how did you get here in the first 
place?” 

“ I came here as soon as I got out of the shell, 
to find food for myself. That was almost two 
years ago, and as I said, I don’t propose to stay 
much longer.” 




84 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“Oh I know!” Victor exclaimed, “after you 
came from the shell you were a wriggling little 
creature whom everybody disliked, and changed 
your dress every few days until you became like 
your present self.” 

“You are mistaken,” his friend returned, 
coldly. “I was nothing of the kind. When the 
shell, which was my first home,^ was broken, and 
I stepped out, I was just as I am now, but smaller. 
To be sure, I’ve changed my coat several times, 
and every time I put on a new one I find my¬ 
self larger. 

“The next dress that I have will be entirely 
different from any of these. I am now making 
my way up into the world where my new dress 
will be given me, and I shall be myself, the 
Great Owl with a White Cross.” 

“Oh, please let me go with you!” Victor said 
coaxingly. 

“No,” his friend returned, “You ought to 
stay in the ground two years, and you’ve scarcely 
been here two minutes.” 

“ Oh, 1 couldn’t stay two years. What would 
my mother do without me?” 

“ In order to get out of your present quarters 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


85 


you must feel as I do, that you can’t possibly 
endure the darkness another hour, that it will 
smother you, and nothing but the light of the 
sun will satisfy you.” 

“ I feel just that way,” Victor said eagerly. 

“Then you may begin to climb higher.” 

So they started upon their journey. It was 
slow work, for they had to dig a path with their 
feet, as they went along. 

“ Two years is a long, long time to stay in the 
ground,” Victor said, as they were making their 
way upward. 

“ Not so very long,” his friend answered. 

“Now if I had to stay in that dark place as 
long as my cousin does, I should indeed be dis¬ 
couraged.” 

“And how long does be stay underground?” 

“Seventeen years.” 

“ Seventeen years, why that is twice as many 
years as 1 have lived!” Victor exclaimed. “Do 
tell me all about it.” 

“Well, like me, as soon as he leaves the shell, 
my seventeen year cousin sinks into the ground, 
deeper and deeper, and fastens himself upon the 
roots of a tree or bush, and there he spends the 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


dreary years until at last the time comes for him 
to appear. 

“Then he makes his way to the surface, and 
hiding under sticks and stones, waits until his 
brothers are ready to join him, when a host of 
them come out. 

“ If the weather is wet they remain just under 
the surface of the ground, and throw up little 
earthen homes that they live in until it becomes 
dryer, when they come out, throw off their old 
clothes, and live one brief summer. 

“ The children that they leave, go down into 
the ground, and men see nothing more of them 
for another seventeen years. 

“ Some cousins can only be persuaded to stay 
under ground thirteen years. Otherwise their 
life is just like that of their friends. 

“But I think I see daylight ahead.” 

It was true, and in a few minutes the two 
were painfully making their way up the tree. 

They had not gone far when they paused, and 
once more Victor felt the joy of a prisoner about 
to be given his freedom. 

The old husk burst, and after first carefully 
putting out his head, he drew out his body and 


VICTOR IN BUZZ!AND. 


87 


legs. Then he waited until his wings were dry, 
and he and his friends flew away to the highest 
branch of a tree. 

Victor was surprised to find that when he be¬ 
gan to fly, he began to sing also, and inquired of 
his friend about the song. 

“ We have two musical instruments at the end 
of our bodies,” the other replied, “we will call 
them bag-pipes, since, although our bodies are 
scarcely two inches long, we can make almost as 
loud music as a bag-pipe does, and to a trained 
ear, quite as sweet.” 

“When we are in motion the air coming 
against these instruments, produc es the song, 
which you may here any sunny day in August. 
Damp weather chills us, and we won’t sing for 
anybody.” 

“ There is a man who seems to be looking for 
some one,” Victor said. 

“ Looking for us, no doubt, to treat us to ben¬ 
zine, and a seat on a pin in his cabinet.” 

“ Let us fly away and sit upon the branches 
among the leaves, where we will look so much 
like our friend the tree that he won’t be apt to 


see us. 


VICTOR IN BVZZLAND. 


“ I never thought before, how much like the 
trees the color of our bodies is.” 

“Yes, Mother Nature sometimes dresses her 
children in clothes so nearly like the homes they 
occupy, that their enemies can scarcely see them, 
and thus they escape many dangers.” 

“ Do I look as much like an owl as you do?” 
Victor asked, thinking that all the Great Owls 
were given to lecturing, and just a bit tiresome. 

“ We are all just alike,” his friend returned, 
shortly. 

“Then my face looks as if it had been flat¬ 
tened out until, if it were round instead of trian¬ 
gular, it would be almost like an owl’s face. 

“My old shell had no wings—1 couldn’t use 
them in the ground anyway—but now 1 have a 
pair of beautiful ones, shielded by covers that 
look so much like the real articles that they are 
often mistaken for them, and then my voice is so 
musical that although it is situated upon my body 
instead of in my throat,.I enjoy using it.” 

Here Victor paused. His friend said nothing, 
but looked wise. Victor fidgeted, and then 
added: 

“ And if you couldn’t tell by all those signs 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


that I am a Great Owl, you’d know it by this 
long lecture. Ha, ha! 

Ha, ha! Ha, Ha! echoed the other. 

Well what are you laughing about?” Victor 
demanded. 

“You left out one of the most important 
things about yourself, in your wonderful lecture. 
The thing that gives us part of our name.” 

“ Oh you mean the large white cross that I 
wear on my breast.” 

“ Yes, and if you will give me a chance to 
talk, I’ll tell you about it.” 

“ You can talk all the rest of the afternoon,” 
Victor returned, “for I’m tired of being so high 
up in the air. Besides, I see another fairy down 
below, so good by,” and away he flew, down, 
down into the grass where a little fellow was 
singing a cheery song. 


90 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


THE ACROBAT. 

“Ahem!’’said Victor as he drew near the 
singer. 

The little creature made no reply, but kept 
on with his song. 

“Ahem ! ” repeated Victor, and as the other 
still paid no attention to him, he began to move 
his wings briskly and started a song of his own, 
that was so loud and shrill the other’s voice 
could not be heard at all. 

Then the little singer although he pretended 
not to hear, performed a most astonishing feat. 
With a single movement, he leaped into the air 
and settled a long distance from his starting point. 

Victor looked after him in amazement, then 
flew to him. 

“ Please tell me how you did that 1 ” he ex¬ 
claimed, “1 never saw anybody who could 
jump ever so many times the length of his own 
body before. Did you ever belong to a circus ?” 

The other laughed. “Why do you ask ?” 

“ 1 thought you must be a regular acrobat to 
jump like that through the air.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


91 


“No, I’m a very common fairy indeed. I 
never had the least training as an acrobat. It is 
natural for me and all my relations to hop. 
That’s what we are, hoppers, not jumpers. 
Some of us hop in the trees and some in the 
grass. 

“ Would you mind telling me about you life ?” 
Victor asked. 

“ There is not a great deal to tell. First there 
are the eggs which are placed in the ground. 
Then these open and tiny wingless hoppers jump 
about in the grass. After these have changed 
their dresses several times and grown larger with 
each change, they are given wings and can fly 
as well as hop.” 

While the Acrobat talked, the Great Owl hid 
in the grass where he lay peeping out at his new 
friend, at the same time laughing at him. 

Of all the fairies that Victor had seen, this 
one was the quaintest and most grotesque. 

His head was shaped not unlike the head of 
a horse, but of course it was very, very small. 
He had no ears on his head but horns or antennae 
longer than his whole body. 

If he had any neck, it was entirely covered 


92 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


by a kind of saddle that was fastened to his head 
and extended over part of his body. The latter, 
long and round, was almost hidden by the wing 
covers, beneath which the true wings were 
folded. The Acrobat himself was less than two 
inches in length. 

“Please hop for me again,” Victor said, when 



the Acrobat had finished his story. “I should 
like to learn to hop myself.” 

“With pleasure,” his friend returned, and 
grasping a blade of grass with his hind feet, he 
straightened out his hind legs, propelling himself 
into the air a great distance. 

Then Victor was guilty of a very grave 
offense against the etiquette of the Great Owl 
fairies. Lying down in the grass he laughed and 
rolled about until his sides ached. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


93 


His friend was greatly offended. “ 1 shall do 
nothing more to please you,” he said. 

“ I beg your pardon,” Victor returned. “ I 
did not wish to hurt your feelings, but of all the 
fairies that I’ve met, I never yet saw one with 
elbows in his legs, that opened and closed like 
jack-knives.” 

The Acrobat made no answer. 

“ I beg your pardon,” Victor repeated. 

“I heard you.” 

Victor arose from his place in the grass and 
stared into his friend’s face so long and earnestly 
that the latter became uneasy and asked. “At 
what are you looking ? ” 

“You said that you heard me. I’m looking 
for your ears, I don’t see any.” 

Now if the Acrobat had been as rude as 
Victor, he would have laughed this time, but he 
only said, courteously, “You are looking in the 
wrong place for my ears, they are not on my head.” 

“Where are they ?” 

“ On the base of the abdomen.” 

Victor gazed at his friend in astonishment. 

“My cousin, the Acrobat continued,” has his 
ears on his forelegs. 


94 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“How queer!” Victor exclaimed, “but did 
you know that I have bagpipes on my 
body ?” 

“Oh yes, that is an old story to me! IVe 
lived among your people, you know. 1 have a 
violin and bow on my own body.” 

“Where?” 

“My right wing cover has a little round 
membrane stretched over a ring. My left wing 
cover has a rough edge, and when I feel musically 
inclined I draw this which is the bow over the 
violin on my right side, and that makes the 
music with which I serenade my lady love at 
night.” 

“ Is it your violin that I hear at night ? ” 

“ It may be mine, or it may be my cousin’s.” 
I have a cousin often mistaken for my twin- 
brother, who can produce a song by rubbing his 
rough legs against his wing covers. 

“You seem to have plenty of cousins.” 

“Yes, there are naturally many branches to a 
family as old as ours.” 

“ How old is your family ? ” 

“We must be as old as the hills, for we have 
been found in stones that are taken out of the hills.” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND 


95 


“ Is it another cousin that sings Kree, Kree, 
Kree! on your hearthstone on summer evenings?” 

“Yes, and still another one sings in the tree 
tops at night. He predicts the weather so people 
say. We are all musical and if you will wait a 
moment, I will get all my cousins together, and 
let you hear the orchestra play,” and the Acrobat 
went in search of the musicians. 


96 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


MR. GREEN EAGE WING OR KATY’S EOVER. 

When the Acrobat returned, Victor was no 
where in sight, for he had seen Mr. Green Lace 
Wing, one of Acrobat’s cousins, and had flown 
to him. 

Few people would have been able to see this 
pale green creature trying to hide among the 
leaves—he was bashful—but Victor’s eyes, un¬ 
like those of the feathered owl, were very keen. 

Night was approaching, and Green Lace 
Wing’s own particular friend the moon was 
sending her beams down, to encourage her 
admirers to sing their love songs. That was the 
reason he was about and Victor happened to see 
him when he did. As soon as he saw him, 
Victor wished to become better acquainted. 

Victor sat down upon the branch of the 
hedge where a slate colored ball was hanging. 
While he watched it, the ball slowly opened, and 
out stepped a pretty delicate little creature, 
smaller than Mr. Green Lace Wing but very 
much like him. 

* 

Victor would never have suspected that he 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


97 


was of the same family, for there was not a wing 
about him that he could see. As he came from 
the egg—that was what the ball really was—he 
cast off his first suit of clothes, and left them 
hanging upon the branch. 

The little fellow had no sooner gained the 
use of his legs than he ran away and hid in a 
crevice so small that Victor was unable to 
enter it. 

He was sorry to lose his little friend, but in 
a moment he found another Lace Wing, older 
than the one who ran away and began to talk 
to him. 

“Wha. are you going to do?” he asked as 
the new acquaintance climbed upon a forked 
branch and grasped it very firmly. 

“I’ve changed my clothes four times and 
now I am about to have my fifth suit given me, 
when I shall be a grown up Lace Wing. 

While he was yet talking, an opening appeared 
in the back of his head, that gradually increased 
in size. 

With his palpi, the fringe like hairs about his 
mouth, he pushed the old covering off his head 
and pulled out his antennae in great loops. 


98 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


After he had rested a moment, he clasped yet 
more closely, with his middle and hind feet, 
the branch beneath him, and gently drew out his 
forefeet. After that it was not much work to 
get the rest of his body out. 

But alas I although he was given a pair of 
wings with his new garments, he found them so 
soft as to be useless, and they hung at his sides, 
like bits of wet lace. 

He was almost discouraged, but while he sat 
sighing the brilliant sunshine dried the wings 
and drew them into place. The outer wings 
now looked like dainty leaves. Beneath these 
was a pair of transparent, membraneous wings, 
exquisitely veined, and folded like tiny fans. 

“I’ll sing you a few notes of my song,” he 
said to Victor, so that I may see if my wings are 
all right, although it is too early in the day to 
begin the evening concert. 

With that he opened his wing covers with a 
sudden jerk, and gradually closing them pro¬ 
duced a song, similar to one that Victor often 
heard on August nights when the moonbeams 
playing upon his eyelids drove slumber away. 

“Thank you,” Victor said, when the song 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


99 


was finished, I shall listen for you to-night, and 
he flew back to Mr. Green Lace Wing. 

“ Is that the way you spent your childhood ? ” 
he asked him. 

“Yes.” 

“ I’m very glad I know,” now please tell me 



the legend that you promised me, I feel just like 
hearing a story. 

“Well you must know then, that a great 
many years ago, the voices of all the Lace Wings 
were exactly alike, and all sang the same song, 
until one of my grandfathers away back, changed 
his song and made all his brothers change theirs, 
to celebrate the greatest event in his life.” 

“Grandfather Lace Wing was as happy as 



100 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


any body could be, until there appeared in his 
family a beautiful young creature named Katy.” 

“Then the brothers fell to quarrelling over 
who should possess Katy’s affections. None of 
them, however, loved her as great grandfather did. 
But the more he thought of her, the less she 
seemed to care for him. He was in despair and 
pined away until he was but a shadow of his 
former bright self. At last, one evening, he 
heard Katy complaining because all of her lovers 
sang the same song, and sighing for a new one. 
Here was a way out of his trouble. He deter¬ 
mined to compose a new air, and when it was 
ready, he invited her to listen to it, promising 
that if it pleased her, his whole family should 
sing of her ever more.’' 

This is the song: 

“Oh Katy dear! the night shines clear, 

The moonbeams hover over, 

The August breeze just stirs the leaves 
And wafts the scent of clover. 

“Oh Katy dear ! can you not hear 
The happy insect lovers ? 

Their tiny bells ring from the dells 
And from the leafy covers. 


I/ICIUR £N BUZZLAND. 


101 


“Oh Katy dear ! if me you’ll hear 
And on my suit have pity, 

Then ope your wing, one faint note sing 
In answer to my ditty.” 

“And did Katy answer?” Victor asked as 
Green Lace Wing paused. 

“ Katy did 1 ” 



102 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


TUB DIGGER FAIRIES. 

It was getting late in the afternoon before 
Victor decided to return home, He flew down 
to the ground and was walking along in a slow, 
dignified manner, as Great Owl Fairies do, when 
he was stopped by a ball as large as a hickory 
nut rolling across his path. It fell into a little 
hollow directly in front of him and there remained. 

“ Lend a hand ! ” cried a voice. 

“Wait a moment,” said Victor, and he im¬ 
mediately changed into a fairy like this one, for 
he was now able to change himself. 

The two then threw themselves against the 
ball, and, pushing with all their strength were 
able to move it forward. 

“What have you there?” Victor asked, as 
the other began to move away, rolling the ball 
before her. 

“ My children.” 

“You don’t mean to tell me that your children 
are larger than you are?” 

“No, of course not.” I’ve wrapped them up 
in this ball of earth. My friends and I shall bury 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


103 


them in the ground, and when they are big enough 
to eat, they will find their food all about them. 

Some of my cousins don’t provide so well for 
their children, but leave them in the ground to 
shift for themselves, and being mischievous little 
rogues, they spend their time cutting off the 
roots of farmers’ plants, leaving the tops to die. 



At that moment Victor felt himself lifted up 
by a powerful pair of jaws, and thrown to one 
side, while a creature that looked as large as a 
stag to him—although he was but two inches 
long—went lumbering by. He was of a dark 
brown color, smooth and shining, and on his 
head was an enormous pair of antlers. 

Victor shuddered as he thought how he 
might have been hurt, had the terrible creature 
tossed him with those antlers. 




104 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


“ What was that ? ” he whispered, as soon as 
it was out of hearing. 

“That was one of my cousins. We are all a 
little afraid of him, he is so large and ugly 
tempered." 

“ Have you many relations ? ’’ Victor asked. 

“Indeed 1 have; there are thousands of us 
engaged in every kind of business. Some of us 
give such a beautiful phosphorescent light that 
we serve for lanterns on dark summer nights. 
One branch of the family spend their time 
digging holes in the ground, in which they bury 
birds, mice and other small animals." 

“Where shall I find these fairies?" Victor 
interrupted, “ I’ve been almost every kind of a 
fairy, but never a Digger Fairy, and I’d like to 
join them." 

Just at that moment a hawk flying over head 
dropped a little bird at their feet. 

“Sit down by that bird," said the new 
friend, “and you will soon see them 
coming." 

Victor did so, and in a few moments a whole 
company of little brown fellows arrived. 

“They look like bugs," he said. 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


105 


“ They are not bugs. Did you ever see a bug 
carry his wings in a hard case as we do ? ” 

“ No,” said Victor, I never did. Goodby, I’ll 
join these fellows. He made a slight change in 
his figure and became like the Diggers, whom 
he joined around the dead bird. 

“ They were shaking their heads dismally.” 
We can never do it, they sighed. 

“Do what?” asked Victor. 

“ Bury it here, where the ground is so hard, 
we shall have to move him, and that will be hard 
work,” drawled a lazy fellow, who talked to 
Victor instead of helping his friends. Mean¬ 
while the Diggers were busy tearing up the 
ground with their strong claws, and soon they 
had quite a hole dug. Then they drew the 
bird into it and covered it with earth. No 
sooner was this accomplished than one of their 
number found a dead humming bird. The poor 
little creature lay upon his back, his pretty 
feathers all ruffled. 

His soft bed was easily dug away, and with¬ 
out disturbing him the Diggers hollowed it out, 
letting him sink gradually into his grave. This, 
Victor thought, was a very pretty burial for so 


106 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND . 


lovely a creature. When the hollow was filled, 
the last bit was a piece of moss which Victor 
himself placed upon it. 

“ Do you bury many animals ? ” he asked. 

“Yes, we bury snakes, rats and other things, 
that is why so few of these animals are found 
lying about.” 

“You are very kind to save people the 
trouble of doing it.” 



“Yes and by burying these creatures, we 
have something for ourselves and children to 
live upon.” 

Victor was quiet a moment, then he said, as 
he sat down and clasped his hands around his 
knees—for he suddenly found himself a boy 
again. “You people are about as queer as any 
I’ve seen in Fairyland to-day.” 



VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


107 


“ Fairyland ! ” echoed the Digger, resting upon 
his shovel, which really was his hands—“You 
hav’nt been off your own grounds this afternoon 1” 
“Why! this is our oak tree, and our lawn, 
and our gravel walk, but I’m sure I never saw 
any such fairies here, before ! ” 

“ O, yes you have, but you called us hugs ! 
You’ve trampled upon us, and thrown the balls 
containing my cousin’s children into the lake 
instead of opening them, to see how ingeniously 
she provided food for them. 

“Did you ever think when robbing my 
cousins, the fire-flies, of their beautiful light, 
how they seem to reflect the stars, on summer 
nights ? Although you are fond enough of the 
honey which Brown Jacket stores away for you, 
you are much afraid of the dagger he carries. 

“Yellow Plush, too, you know only to fear. 
But a closer acquaintance with him would show 
you the busy gossip, gathering golden life secrets 
from the hearts of purple clovers, only to scatter 
them about. Did you ever follow an ant into 
his home, and find the queen, who is the real old 
woman who has so many children she doesn’t 
know what to do ? ” 


VICTOR IN BUZZLAND. 


108 


“Flies, mosquitoes and spiders—what are 
they good for ? ” Victor interrupted, “or cicadas, 
or grasshoppers either ? 

The Digger paid no attention, but continued. 

“As for the Winged Flowers and Dragons, 
you seem to care for them only to transfix them 
with pins, instead of allowing them to beautify 
the air. Silk fairies are not so interesting, since 
men have tamed them until they have lost their 
instincts, but they’re good fellows worth 
knowing.” 

Again Victor was quiet, thinking, then he 
said, “I’ll never wish to go to Fairyland again, 
since I know that there are stranger fairies, right 
here, at home, than there ! ” 

“ And never be cruel to an insect again for 
fear you may injure your own good fairy,” the 
Digger added, as he took the form of a June-bug 
and flew away toward the house where the lights 
were beginning to twinkle in the windows. 



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Busy Work Arithmetic Papers, Nos. 1 to 5, each 

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Curious Cobwebs, Nos. 1 and 2.each 

Drawing Stencils, 20 in box. . 

Drawing Made Easy Cards, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4.. .each 

Drawing, First Steps in, 12 books.each 

Drawing Book, Blank..each 

Easy Experiments in Physics. 

History Cards, 200 in box. .. 

History Outlines, Miss Ensign's. 


History of Civil War. 

Helps in Teaching Little Ones. 

Geography, Chalk Illustrations.. 

Geography, How to Teach and Study—North 

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Geography, South America and Europe. 

Gymnastics, Brief Manual in. 

Gymnastics, Betz’ System.from 35c to 

Geography Outlines. 

Geographical Recreations. 

Literary Cards, 100, American. 

Literary Cards, 100, English. 

Merry Songs. 

Merry Melodies... 

Golden Glees. . 

Fountain Songs, Nos. 1, 2, 3. 

Songs of School Life, words only.. 

Opening Exercises, Stories for. 

Memory Gems, Primary. 

Practical Etiquette.. 

Talks with Pupils. 

Suggestions for Seat Work . 

Science Outlines. 

Science Teaching, Introductory Guide. 

Outlines in Composition. 

Outlines in Physiology. 

Outlines in Grammar. 

Report Cards—Many kinds.per 100 

Reward and Picture Cards—Many kinds. 

Speakers—All the leading ones. 

Supplementary Reading Cards, 1st Reader. 

Supplementary Reading Cards, 2nd Reader.... 

Science Reader, 1st. 

Science Reader, 2nd.. 

Nature Myths and Stories.cloth 

Three Lovers of Nature . . 

Pied Piper and Other Stories. 

Sentence Cards, Howliston’s. 

Norse Gods and Heroes. 

Registers, Quantrell’s Pocket Class.. 

Theory and Practice of Teaching,'’Page.. .cloth 
Methods, Aids and Devices of 1,000 Teachers... 

Walks and Talks, by Author of “Dodd”. 

Stencils—Great help to every teacher; 250.each 
(Send for list.) 


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